This application is related to: application entitled Method, Apparatus And Medium For Describing A Virtual Shared Space Virtual Reality Modeling Language, application entitled Method, Apparatus And Presentation Medium For Multiple Auras In A Virtual Shared Space, application entitled Information Processing Apparatus, Method and Computer Program for Virtual Reality Aura Setting, application entitled Information Processing Apparatus, Method and Computer Program for Virtual Reality Transparent Avatars, and application entitled Information Processing Apparatus, Method and Computer Program for Virtual Reality Object Management Using Auras, each of the above-referenced applications are assigned to Sony Corporation of Japan, the assignee of the present application, and each of the above-referenced applications concurrently filed herewith, disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present application claims priority to Japanese application No P10-277061 filed on Sep. 30, 1999 in Japan.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method and a presentation medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method and a presentation medium which prevent the amount of transmitted information from excessively increasing, for example, in communication with other avatars through an avatar placed in a 3-dimensional virtual space.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional cyberspace service called Habitat(copyright) is known in the field of personal computer (PC) communication service such as NIFTY-Serve(copyright) and CompuServe(copyright) where a plurality of users connect their PCs to a central host computer through modems and a public telephone-line network to access the host computer in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol.
Lucas Film of the United States started the development of a Habitat in 1985. In a Habitat, a parturition of the user, which is an object representing the user, is placed in a virtual city called Populopolis which is rendered by 2-dimensional graphics, allowing the user to, among others, chat with another user. The parturition of the user is referred to as an avatar. An avatar is an incarnation of a user which is an object representing the user itself appearing in a virtual environment. The term avatar originates from an Indian myth and refers therein to the incarnation of a Hindu deity. In this context, a chat is a real-time conversation based on texts which are displayed on a screen as a result of input operations of characters via a keyboard. A more detailed description of Habitat is described in Cyberspace, Michael Benedikt edition, an NTT publication ISBN4-87188-265-9C0010, first edition of Mar. 20, 1994 (which is a translation of Cyberspace: First Steps, Michael Benedikt, ed. 1991, MIT Press Cambridge, Mass. ISBN 0-262-02327-X), pages 282 to 307. After approximately three years of operation of the Habitat by Quantum Link, a U.S. commercial network company, NIFTY-Serve started a Habitat service as Fujitsu Habitat(copyright) in February 1990.
In a conventional cyberspace system operated in a PC communication service of this type, a row of houses on a street and rooms in each of the houses in the virtual city are rendered by 2-dimensional graphics so that, in order to move an avatar inward or outward with respect to the background of a 2-dimensional graphic, the avatar is merely moved up and down over the background. That is to say, the display expression is poor for a pseudo experience of a walk or a movement in the virtual space. In addition, since the virtual space in which the avatar representing the user and another avatar are displayed is seen from the viewpoint of a third person, the perspective of a pseudo experience is also lost in this respect.
In order to eliminate the shortcomings described above, the virtual space is displayed with 3-dimensional graphics and to allow the user to walk about in the space with a high degree of freedom as seen from a viewpoint of the avatar is implemented utilizing a descriptive language of 3-dimensional graphic data called a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) as disclosed in pending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/678,340 filed Jul. 11, 1996, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Details of the VRML are described in, for example, Knowing VRML: Browsing and Building Cyberspace, by Mark Pesce and translated by Kohichi Matsuda, Terunao kamachi, Shoichi Takeuchi, Yasuaki Honda, Junichi Koyomoto, Sadayuki Ishikawa, Ken Miyashita and Kazuhiro Hara, first edition of Mar. 25, 1996, Prentice Hall publication ISBN4-931356-37-0 (which is a translation of VRML: Browsing and Building Cyberspace, by Mark Pesce, 1995 New Readers Publishing ISBN 1-56205-498-8), and in Recent Trends in VRML and CyberPassage, by Kohichi Matsuda and Yasuaki Honda, bit (Kyoritsu publication)/1996, Vol. 28, No. 7, pages 29 to 36, No. 8, pages 57 to 65, No. 9, pages 29 to 36 and No. 10, pages 49 to 58.
In addition, the specifications of Version 2.0 of the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (ISO/IEC CD 14772) is available at the following URL: http://www.vrml.org/Specifications/VRML2.0/FINAL/spec/index.html. A Japanese version of the specifications is available at the following URL: http://www.webcity.co.jp/info/andoh/VRML/vrml2.0/spec-jp/index.html.
VRML2.0 which is the most recent version of the VRML can be used to describe and express an autonomous behavior of an object in a 3-dimensional virtual space. Thus, for example, with respect to an object walking about in a virtual space displayed by 3-dimensional graphics in a browser for VRML2.0 (i.e., a 3-dimensional virtual space) as seen from the viewpoint of the avatar, the user can obtain the perception as if the user is actually walking about in the 3-dimensional space.
Community Place(copyright) Browser/Bureau is a typical browser for VRML2.0 and software for a shared server developed as a product by Sony Corporation, the assignee of the present invention. Its prototype xcex2 version is available at the following URL: http://vs.sony.co.jp.
In a system representing such a 3-dimensional virtual system, it is reasonable to assume that the users located worldwide are capable of sharing the same 3-dimensional virtual system typically through the Internet. In this case, the number of avatars participating in the 3-dimensional virtual space (the world) increases, raising the number of messages exchanged among the objects. With a very large number of participating avatars for a given 3-dimensional virtual space, it becomes difficult to exchange messages at a high speed.
To address this problem, an area referred to as an aura is defined and prescribed (or assigned) for each object and only objects placed in the same aura share information. This approach is proposed in, for example, A Spatial Model of Interaction in Large Virtual Environments, by S. Benford and L. Fahlen in September 1993, in proceedings of G. DeMichelis et al. (Eds.) presented to Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, pages 109 to 124, in Virtual Society: Extending the WWW to Support a Multi-user Interactive Shared 3D Environment, by Yasuaki Honda et al. in 1995, Proceedings of VRML ""95, pages 109 to 116, ACM press.
Even with this approach proposed above, the amount of transmitted information can be limited to a certain degree. Indeed, with the increasing number of participating avatars for a given 3-dimensional virtual space, the increased number of messages resulting in communication congestion may become more severe.
To further address this problem described above, it may be possible to control the size of an aura in accordance with the degree of congestion. However, with this approach, the size of the aura becomes very extremely small in the event of congestion, making it difficult for the avatar to communicate with another object.
In view of the foregoing, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus for receiving information through an object placed in a 3-dimensional virtual space from another object, the information processing apparatus comprising: a prescription means for prescribing a range surrounding the object and including the other object from which information is received; a setting means for setting a restrictive item restricting reception of information from the other object placed in the range prescribed by the prescription means; and a control means for controlling reception of information from the other object in accordance with the range prescribed by the prescription means and the restrictive item set by the setting means.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for receiving information through an object placed in a 3-dimensional virtual space from another object, the information processing method comprising the steps of: a prescription step of prescribing a range surrounding the object and including the other object from which information is received; a setting step of setting a restrictive item restricting reception of information from the other object placed in the range prescribed at the prescription step; and a control step of controlling reception of information from the other object in accordance with the range prescribed at the prescription step and the restrictive item set at the setting step.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a presentation medium for presenting a program executable by a computer to drive an information processing apparatus for receiving information through an object placed in a 3-dimensional virtual space from another object to carry out processing including: a prescription step of prescribing a range surrounding the object and including the other object from which information is received; a setting step of setting a restrictive item restricting reception of information from the other object placed in the range prescribed at the prescription step; and a control step of controlling reception of information from the other object in accordance with the range prescribed at the prescription step and the restrictive item set at the setting step.
Since reception of information from another object is controlled in accordance with a range and a restrictive item which are set in advance, the amount of transmitted information can be restricted even if the number of objects in the virtual reality space increases. Accordingly, the present invention allows information to be exchanged with other objects with a high degree of reliability even if the number of objects in a 3-dimensional virtual space increases.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.